


Clock

by demiclar



Series: Destcember 2020 [6]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Destcember Day 6, Sometime pre-Red War, Stoneborn Order reimagined, Zavala gets mad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27930061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demiclar/pseuds/demiclar
Summary: Edon listens to the clock while awaiting his punishment.
Series: Destcember 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037118
Kudos: 5
Collections: Fireteam Aadya





	Clock

Zavala was the only person Edon knew who still possessed an analogue clock. He’d seen them before, the City still had clock towers, and he’d seen them in the ruins of old cities and towns, but he’d never met anyone who personally owned them. He knew people used to, in pre-golden age photographs, the ancient alternative to digital clocks could be seen on walls or standing upright on desks and tables, they served as both decorative and useful pieces, and Edon’s eyes continued to dart to the clock as the minutes ticked by. He was beginning to understand why they’d gone out of fashion.

Alone, in Zavala’s office, the ticking of the clock set over the door echoed through the room, sometimes feeling louder than the sound of Edon’s pacing. _Tick, tick, tick._ The noise threatened to drive him insane.

His eyes found the clock again. 5:27. It took him a moment to read. He rarely had practice with them. He let the knowledge of the time settle in to his gut. He’d been in Zavala’s office for over half an hour, pacing, listening to the tick of the clock, waiting for the next shoe to drop.

It wasn’t the clock that had him on edge, but it did seem to rub it in.

No, Amaya had messed up. He was to take the fall for it, and what a fall it was.

Amaya…she’d only been his Second for a matter of months, he was already growing worried. He’d picked her, too, she hadn’t just been assigned to him. He’d been the one in this office months ago convincing Zavala to let her switch to his squadron to become his Second, to replace his previous one, having resigned from the order.

All of Zavala’s counterpoints were coming back to him now. The commander might’ve respected her and her abilities, but he’d called her hotheaded, careless, reckless even. It was all starting to sink in now. He tore his mind from that place.

Amaya had made a mistake, a very, _very_ costly mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. Edon had instructed her not to change settings on any of the building’s systems. When the building she’d been in with her squad had come under fire though, she’d tried to adjust the building’s shield generator to reinforce one area of the shield, the area being shelled the hardest. Instead, she’d made the system so sensitive the generator had exploded, the shields had fallen, and most of the building with it.

The whole front had to shift their posts in order to come reinforce them. Half of Tarakash’s squadron had come to their aid. Thank the Traveler there had been no casualties, but Edon knew it could have been so, so much worse. He had no idea how much money the damage would cost the Order. He knew it would be a lot, but whether or not it was enough to justify throwing both him and Amaya out of the order, he didn’t know. Didn’t want to know.

He checked the clock again. 5:28.

Thankfully, all the people with Amaya had been Titans. While the Order worked with City Militia, they weren’t allowed beyond the Wall, which meant everyone Amaya had killed in her explosion had simply been resurrected by their Ghosts. He didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened had they been there. He heaved a deep breath, pulling his mind from one rabbit hole only to fall into another. Was he here to get fired? Or would Zavala simply scream at him and give him whatever punishment he’d need to endure. He hoped it was the latter. He’d worked too hard to lose what he had to a mistake.

Still his worries were spiraling. If the Order had to replace the entire building…they’d have to secure the area for construction workers to come out, which meant either shifting the current squads or hiring more guardians to come to their aid. All of that meant added costs, all of them his and Amaya’s faults. His stomach knotted itself in worry.

But it didn’t matter. Amaya might’ve caused this problem but it had still been a mistake. She’d been trying to protect the troops, which is exactly what he’d been teaching her. She’d thought of others before herself, she’d disobeyed him because protecting her troops had been more important than whatever punishment she’d face because she’d disobeyed his orders. And she would face punishment, she had to, but she’d still been trying to follow his teachings. He had to stand by her. He had to.

The thoughts calmed his racing heart just a bit, only for his heart to jump to his throat with tension when the door opened, and he glimpsed Zavala descending the steps towards him before he scrambled to face forward at attention.

Zavala’s pace was clipped with anger, and Edon could feel the emotion radiating off him in waves though his light. His stomach knotted tight as Zavala rounded the desk to stand behind it, in front of Edon.

“Do you have _any idea_ the damage you’ve caused?” The Commander questioned; his voice low.

  
Edon kept his gaze up, straight ahead. “Yes, Sir.” He answered shortly. No excuses, no waffling.

“I warned you she wasn’t ready.” Zavala continued, and it was an effort to keep his gaze forward. “Now I see I was right.”

Edon clenched his jaw so hard his head ached. From his peripheral vision, he could see Zavala eye him with scrutiny.

“Speak.” The Commander told him, his voice still boiling with anger.

Edon kept his gaze forward. “With all due respect, Sir, Amaya acted with her troops best interest at heart.”

“Best interest?” Zavala questioned. He threw a data tablet down onto the desk so hard it cracked. Edon—Traveler damn him—flinched at the noise. “According to _your report,_ she killed half of them and injured the others.”

Edon’s hands shook in fists at his sides. “Yes, Sir.” He confirmed.

Zavala rounded the desk towards him. “Your Second has endangered your squadron, destroyed Vanguard property, and has cost the Order thousands of dollars. The entire building will have to be repaired _and_ we will have to acquire a new shield generator. Until we can do so, the entire eastern front will be at risk.” He stopped perhaps a foot from Edon, if not less. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t throw her and you out of the Order right now.”

Edon took a breath. “Amaya made a mistake, Sir. I know that. A costly mistake. I ordered her not to adjust the shield generator settings and she disobeyed my orders; she needs to be punished. But she also did it in the hopes of protecting her troops. She put herself on the line in the interest of her troops. It might have backfired in a way she didn’t expect, but she learned what I’ve been trying to teach her and what you taught me.” He prayed Zavala was listening, taking him seriously. “She put her troops first, she decided they were more important than she was. If you throw her out of the Order, you waste the potential of what she can become.”

Zavala was silent for a long while. Edon heard the ticking of the clock the entire time.

In the end, their punishment was severe. He and Amaya would work overtime, they would be assigned to the construction crews repairing the building and they would be on the front for the next three months with little break. But Zavala let them keep their ranks and positions, didn’t fire them or discharge them or transfer or separate them. In the end, Edon wasn’t sure he’d ever been more grateful in his life.


End file.
